731 days ago I set out a goal that I had no way of knowing it would go this far. No real reason to even do it, other than to expand my learning capabilities. I started using Duolingo to learn Spanish. 15-45 minutes per day, everyday for 2 years straight. Every morning.

You may ask yourself what is the significance of that? Well, I wasn't awake at that time & I was re-learning life as I had been a criminal & drug addict who had only completed his sentence 1½ years earlier. Everything I did was without God. Then something changed while in jail.

I began to pray about 90 days in.

That was the day I was no longer a drug addict. Ya see, I was still planning on getting high & wanting the prescription drugs. Until that fateful night when I prayed. Like magic, I stopped thinking about getting high. A year later, I'm about to

Be released in 2-3 months & I decide to start working out. I was 280 lbs about 4 years earlier and lost that weight due to a physical job & cutting out sugar. But never worked out & at this moment I started to work out. A small goal that I would tell everyone was what God wanted

Me to do. So, I did it. Little by little I started carving out a muscular physique & lost all the soft, doughy parts. Then comes along Spanish less than 2 years later. Another small goal of just take it little by little. No end in sight. I just want to see how good I can do.

#YemenCantWait there is the most brilliant plea for an end to the War on the People of Yemen right now at https://t.co/V4hiU04urX What a TRIBUTE to the #Yemeni People. SO many really care for #Yemen, @joebiden must ends the label of the #Houthis as a Terror Organisation.

Great to hear this from you on #YemenCantWait and looking forward to seeing you cease USA logistical and military support to #Saudi on their campaign in #Yemen, and that they pay reparations and lift the blockade. Yes please send that AID. @ABlinken

Couldn't be more proud to hear @johnfinucane on behalf of @sinnfeinireland and #IRELAND at the #YemenCantWait @Zoom Conference tonight.

Millions of Children, (1.5 times our population in Ireland), do not have access to safe water in #Yemen STOP the #Saudi blockade.

says that Ireland must be a symbol for PEACE. Immediate Ceasefire and Lifting Blockade DEMANDED. Funding must be restored. We have seen our share of poverty, war and hunger in the Ireland past, we will not stand by and endure that others feel it. #YemenCantWait

@FranceInsoumise now "#France selling arms, canons, missiles and ships to #Saudi for offensive purposes and to commit war crimes, along the Saudi #Yemen Border. France in breach of the arms trade treaty in all of its actions. IT IS NOT COMPLEX @EmmanuelMacron "

And the decade is near its end, already. As I reflect on the decade with so much of gratitude, listing down some of my learnings that has shaped my life!

#1 : Nothing is permanent. People, Feelings, Situations. We always think and believe we’ll hold on to things forever, but everything is fluid and transforms as it’s destined to be.

#2 : Things that we yearn for - Holidays, Homes, Cars bring momentary happiness. What makes you happy everyday is a purpose that you believe in, and seeing that purpose take shape.

#3 : There is no substitute for hard work. There is never any short cut. Short cuts give temporary results. Hard work builds the foundation.

#4: Unclosed Loops come back and haunt you. Years, sometimes decades later, but they do.

BOYS ALSO SUFFER FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LIKE GIRLS

HON ROBSON MAVENYENGWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for allowing me the opportunity to add my voice to the motion brought by Hon. Bhuda concerning gender based violence which is mainly targeted against women and children. @wlsazim

HON MAVENYENGWA: I am a parent, I have a girl child and it pains me to witness the girl child being abused especially when they live with people who are not their natural parents. If people live with a step mother in most cases, they are ill treated.@YetTrust @NAYOZimbabwe

HON MAVENYENGWA: They grow up in an environment that is not conducive for children. There was a case where we ended up having to call the police because the stepmother was ill treating the child. @Y4pdZ @Youth4SDGsZim @NYDT1 @Youthdecidezw @moysarzim

HON. MAVENYENGWA: The child would draw water, look for wood and do everything to the extent that the child was failing to go to school. The father was there and was seeing these events unfold with his own eyes. That also touched me as the local Member of Parliament.

HON. MAVENYENGWA: I ended up looking for the police& those from Social Welfare department to ensure they assist the child. We are saying that Govt should come up with laws& penalties that are deterrent especially in GBV especially where the mother has passed away.

Hello friends! Freelance photojournalist and accidental labour organizer, @photobracken here to tell you just how not good it’s been for photographers *gestures broadly at everything* esp freelancers, and what we are doing about it over at @PhotojsUnited.

It’s no news to say the news industry is struggling, but bear with me while I attempt to summarize why photojournalism is especially in crisis–it’s an inherently risky job that’s getting riskier, and most of us are freelancers who are totally unrepresented in the labour market.

We are losing photojournalists and it's terrifying bc, to echo @kassijackson_, photojournalists ARE journalists. It’s a specialized skill set that’s not easily replaced. Our work connects to the human experience, is guided by ethics and grounded in fact.

Don't even get me started on the fact that every marketing plan for every news publication out there trying to survive depends largely on photography. We get clicks baby

There is also an existential crisis going on, as we collectively grapple with the colonial roots and under representation of BIPOC and women in this practice. I’m not diving into that necessary conversation here but,

If you’ll indulge, a bit of a thread on the 10th anniversary of the Sunday Tribune closing. This morning 10 years ago I was sitting in the Spar on Talbot Street with @pjcunningham1 as we planned a three-week trip to the States. 1/?

It was going to be mega. A bit of NBA, baseball spring training, The Masters. Think we talked about a Nascar race too. It was a classic PJ project – don’t worry about what can’t happen, this will be good, let's do it. 2/?

We’ve laughed about it a good few times since. There we were, planning an outrageously expensive trip completely oblivious to the fact that within a few hours, we’d be struggling to get the receipt for the coffees we were drinking covered on expenses. 3/?

It was kind of apt, too. I worked in the Tribune for 11 years and right up to the last morning of the last day, I found it to be a place where journalists had licence to try things that would be good. Didn’t always make financial sense but that was someone else’s problem. 4/?

Thing was, we always knew it was doomed. We always knew it wasn’t making money and that the plug could be pulled at any time. On some level, I always felt that gave you a bit more freedom to try things. Which made it a great place to be young and make mistakes. 5/?

[THREAD] After all the pomp and circumstance of a POTUS being “installed” in a capital city that more closely resembled a garrison, we are left with the reality that for the next four years we must “resist” a political party that intends to“fundamentally transform” the USA.

I've been speaking with Charlie Brown, Managing Director at @Chartwells_UK over the last few days.

I've been losing my patience a bit. It's not been as quick as I wanted, but we are here now. Some of this was organised today, some is from other days but here's a round up:

1/

Over the February school holiday, if there is no Government funding for #FreeSchoolMeals, at all the schools @Chartwells_UK is working in, Charlie commits to putting out boxes anyway.

So if @BorisJohnson @RishiSunak & @GavinWilliamson won't step up by then, Charlie will.

2/

From now, the school lunches boxes from @Chartwells_UK, are also going to cover breakfast as well. Chartwells will take the extra costs associated on the chin. They are fully aware they need to do better, and this is something we both feel is positive. (That was his idea).

3/

All the hampers that went out in the first week, like my rubbish one, that you all saw, aren't being billed. Chartwells need to suck it up. They can't charge Local Authorities (schools) for that now can they! That was an early point of agreement, so you may have heard of it.

4/

Starting with my school, and with a lot of input from teachers, kids & parents, Chartwells will improve the menus for lunches served at school (dinner hall ones). All schools have different menus, so this is a long term project, it'll take a while, but it's important.

5/

The ongoing Lincoln Project story reminds me that I haven't met anyone in politics yet who really understands how journalism works and how to handle a bad story. The Winning FormulaTM is also the right thing to do, but it involves a lot of humility and relinquishing some control.

First, don't lie to reporters. Ever. Even if you fool one, another one will find you out. And there are a lot of people who naively think they will fool ALL the reporters. This is just arrogance.

Don't try to intimidate people you suspect might be sources. It gives them more of an incentive to be a source, and it usually has the opposite of your intended effect: it encourages other people to talk to reporters.

If you know something is going to break, tell the story yourself, truthfully. There's a line from some Chris Matthews book that is actually applicable (and he did not do): hang a lantern on your problems.

Don't get defensive. It makes you sound like you don't *really* think you did anything wrong.

Humanity is good, but, when we let our guard down we allow darkness to infiltrate and destroy.
Like past battles fought, we now face our greatest battle at present, a battle to save our Republic, our way of life, and what we decide (each of us) now will decide our future.

Here is a synopsis of a situation outside of our place in DC Saturday night and some things to think about going forward about the limits of policing. (1/?)

So, about two hours ago, there was a man across the street from where we live screaming and threatening no one in particular on our side of the street.

It's unclear from my vantage whether the man is mentally ill or was simply intoxicated, but suffice it to say he's not in his right mind during this outburst.

In a major US city, this is not particularly unusual, though anyone in the immediate vicinity could be excused for feeling uncomfortable.

I'd imagine description would read something like: B/M, 6'0", 30s, grey hoodie, black pants, pacing & yelling in threatening manner.

For 15-20 minutes, he was totally left alone. At some point, MPD was called, and they came-- but no lights or sirens, established a very loose perimeter--and let him continue to rant at nobody in particular.

1)

If Migration is part of your plans for 2021.

Follow this thread carefully-

7 countries you can easily move to:

NORWAY 🇳🇴

NEW ZEALAND🇳🇿

SWEDEN 🇸🇪

FINLAND 🇫🇮

You know how occasionally you get glimpses of just how casually racist the world we grew up in really was & you get like a vertiginous lurch in your stomach? Heads up, this thread does need a content warning.

Background, I worship The Kinks & rate Ray Davies as one of THE great songwriters, but they're ruined for me by one song - 'Apeman' - a cod calypso in a comedy Caribbean accent with the chorus "wanna live like an apeman" & I thought it was about the most racist pop hit ever >

Well last night I happened upon a 1971 song by Harry Nilsson, a white man from New York, called 'Coconut,' which is another cod calypso etc in an even more offensive comedy accent ("put me lime in de coconut" etc.) I was appalled enough by it, but then >

I looked it up on Youtube & there's an old promo performance video of him doing the song. And it's just him and a guitarist and they are wearing actual monkey suits. I'm not going to paste the vid here because it is genuinely horrible.

But the moral of the story is, people my age (54) & older, we grew up SWIMMING in this stuff. Surrounded by it. People talk about the horrors of the Black & White Minstrel show as if it was in isolation. The truth is our culture, from films & TV, drama to sitcom >

Just got off statewide elected officials call with ERCOT. Trying to relay from memory:

-17 GigaWatt still off line.
-Trying to bring stuff back on line ASAP.
-Combination of gas, coal, solar, wind, and nukes went off line. (Nukes?)
-500 MW (0.5GW) came back during the call

Sun warming up wind turbine blades and shed off ice that formed during cold rain will put wind farms back on line quickly.

Water vapor in gas lines freezing up sensors and regulators in LNG plants.

LNG well heads frozen at the pump.

All cold related outage.

There were cold related measures taken after the freeze of 2011.

But the measures were for 2011 level storm.

2021 far exceeded what was planned or expected.

Just didn't expect this cold and across the entire state.

ERCOT is not responsible for who gets blacked out.

That goes to the transmission entity... oncor, centerpoint, and co-ops decide how to rotate the blackouts. ERCOT just tells them how much load to shed.

The expected blackout cycle is supposed to be 24hr on 24 off.

The only regulation on blackouts is about first responders and critical infrastructure.

(Downtown and hospital districts are critical I would guess)

They apologize for not letting the public know that this was what was going to happen. They knew this was coming last week. (?)

Weaver, Joseph and Young apparently have no understanding of what it means to have a "holistic discussion" on homelessness.

That's not me saying it... that's literally what they are saying in a scheduling meeting now about the followup to Tuesday's meeting.

"I don’t really comprehend what that means bc in the end we make discrete decisions. ... I don’t understand what a holistic (discussion)

Council decided last week that camps will keep being removed BUT they didn't weigh in on staff's recommendations for more enforcement. Members Brockett/Friend said they didn't want to vote on those without also considering more services....

....which might reduce the need for removals.

Basically, you can spend on removals or you can spend on services. So to uncouple these discussions doesn't make sense, they argued.

Council members will be polled about when they want this Part 2 meeting to be, but Weaver and Joseph are both in favor of later. Council needs time to "digest," they said. So possibly March or later.

#Assange extradition verdict is due shortly. I will be reporting on the case through a remote video link to the Old Bailey. #Assange #Assangetrial

We can now see the dock in court 2 of the Old Bailey as we wait for #Assange to arrive. The verdict is scheduled for an hour, but may be over more quickly. #Assange #Assangetrial

Assange has been charged in the US of 17 counts under the US Espionage Act and 1 count under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. #Assange #Assangetrail

There is no public interest defence to charges under the US Espionage Act. Prosecutors have also indicated that Assange will not benefit from first amendment rights as he is not a US citizen. #Assange #Assangetrial

The case has potentially huge implications for journalists and press freedom. It could criminalise many standard journalist practices, such as gathering information from sources and protecting their identities. #Assange #Assangetrial

Hi Twitter I can't sleep again. I need to ramble and rumble myself into passive aggressively sleeping.
The past 12 years haven't been easy for many but for those of us who are Jews of African descent in America it has been a trial by ordeal.

When Obama was president I remember when 1 of my students expressed a sense of fear of him. Their parents compared him to Hitler, wary of his passionate speeches &ability to arouse the masses. I immediately balked but knew where there was this sentiment there were others.

I lost a friend in Eva when she called him a Muslim born in Kenya. She also splashed a kid in the face with water...a lot...and I was like that's not cool but I also realized that would be my ass if I did that.

A parent I did not know threw a Karen moment at me before I knew what they were for wearing an Obama kippa...I took it off after a mild talking to...and I put it right back on after he won.

Then Trump came on the waves of birtherism. People we thought we knew became more and more hostile, untrustworthy and mean. We saw our community struggle between 2/3 mostly ok with us and 1/3 not. Many of us stopped going to the shuls we always had.